


you again

by short_tandem_repeats



Category: Naruto
Genre: Disordered Eating, Gen, Haku (Naruto) Lives, Pre-Relationship, References to Depression, but hes having a bad time, i guess it was originally done for a ship meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 21:45:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17947679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/short_tandem_repeats/pseuds/short_tandem_repeats
Summary: Haku has sunk into despair after the death of Zabuza and his capture by Konoha. Naruto tries to nudge him out of it. Results are mixed.





	you again

**Author's Note:**

> Originally requested by takigakure on tumblr, for a pairing meme. I liked how it came out, so I'm reposting it over here.

Naruto’s shoes tap solemnly on the iron floor of the T&I building as the guard, a hard-faced chuunin with a missing ear, leads him down towards the cells.

“You know the drill by now,” she says boredly. “Ten minutes. Keep in mind you’re both being watched. I’ll get you when time’s up.”

Then she leaves him to the cell, and Haku.

The cell’s not that bad, as far as Naruto can tell - it’s well-lit and not too cold and there’s a real bed and all. But like every other day he’s come, Haku’s not sitting on the bed, he’s sitting on the floor, head on his knees. 

“Hey,” he says, kneeling down to be on the other boy’s level. “Hey, Haku. Are you asleep?”

For a second he does think Haku is either asleep or ignoring him, but Haku slowly tilts his head, so one bleary brown eye is visible under his hair.

“You again,” he croaks.

“Me,” Naruto says. “Why do you always sit on the floor? Doesn’t your butt get tired? Mine would.”

Haku regards him dully for a moment, then turns his head back so his whole face is hidden again. “It doesn’t matter,” he says, voice muffled in his knees. “Nothing matters.”

“That’s not true,” says Naruto, affronted. “Ramen matters cause it tastes good. And Iruka-sensei matters, and Kakashi-sensei, and Sakura-chan, and maybe Sasuke, I guess, and some of the others, because they’re my friends and I care about them, and never giving up matters, cause that’s my ninja way-”

Haku cuts him off. “There’s nothing left that I care about. Nothing matters to me.”

Naruto is quiet for almost a whole minute, at that. “Is it because you lost that person?” he says.

Haku doesn’t say anything for a long time. Naruto sees his one hand resting on the ground, skinny and pale against the dark iron. It’s gotten thinner and bonier over the days Haku’s been in Konoha. Maybe Haku isn’t eating. Naruto’s heart hurts a little, at that.

He almost wishes he could reach through the bars, lace his fingers with Haku’s, make him see that he’s not _alone_. But the bars have got chakra limiters on them, and if you try to touch them or reach through, your whole hand goes numb for hours. He found that out the hard way, the first time he came to visit Haku, and even he’s not dumb enough to make the same mistake twice.

Kakashi-sensei thinks he’s making a mistake, coming here over and over. He said so. The guards think so too, looking at him and Haku with a kind of tired pity. Haku probably thinks Naruto is making a mistake, even. Naruto thinks he doesn’t want to feel better, or be happy, or care about things. Maybe he feels like he shouldn’t.

“Why do you keep coming?” Haku says all of a sudden, and Naruto almost jumps out of his skin cause he’d thought Haku had decide to be done talking.

“What?” he says dumbly, and then realizes Haku is sitting up a little, both eyes visible and full of confusion.

“Why do you keep coming,” he repeats. “I barely even have real conversations with you. I don’t leave this cell, I don’t think about anything, I don’t feel anything. I’ve got nothing interesting or useful to do or say, and you _keep coming_ , and it doesn’t make _sense_.”

It’s the most words he’s said together to Naruto since the bridge, and he actually pants with exertion once he’s done. Naruto politely waits for him to stop, and says “Because…you said back then…if things were different, we could be friends. Things are different now. I wanna be friends.”

Haku is still looking at him like he’s got two heads, so he says “I think you’re really smart and nice and I like you a lot. I don’t want you to keep being sad and feeling like you don’t care about anything. I used to feel like that sometimes, but then I had someone who cared about me, and it was like the whole world changed! I dunno if I can do that but…I want it to happen for you.”

There’s another long, quiet moment, but Haku doesn’t hide his face again.

“I like it when you come here,” he says, very fast like he’s scared to admit it. “I…it’s something…I could…look forward to. But I keep thinking you’ll get tired of me, and stop.”

“I won’t,” Naruto says. “I promise I won’t stop coming. I won’t go back on my word.”

Another silence, and then: “Okay,” says Haku very softly.

Naruto wants to say more, but the one-eared chuunin comes in because time’s up. As she hustles him out of the room, Naruto sees out of the corner of his eye that Haku gets up, slow and shaky, and goes to climb onto the bed.


End file.
